How tradition saved the rare parrot of Margarita Island

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Parrots are being threatened by the destruction of their habitat and by the sale of chicks in the illegal pet tradeBob Krist / Corbis

Simon BarnesInto the wild

Published at 12:01AM, August 11 2012

Animals are protected by the strength of tradition — by the feeling that it
just wouldn’t be right to kill such a creature. Imagine how we would react
if the robin were threatened: we’d storm the barricades before we let Robin
Redbreast die.

It doesn’t have to be a folk tradition lost in time. Local conservationists
know they will always get support for projects that involve dormice or water
voles: dormice because of the one stuffed into a teapot in Alice in
Wonderland; water voles because of Ratty in The Wind in the Willows.